Chapter 948: Rivers Converging into the Sea (Part 5)_2

In just over ten minutes, they had traversed hundreds of kilometers and effortlessly cleared out a nest of leftover zombies.

There are more floating lands here than in Iron Gorge City, probably due to the birth of the [Gravity] Stone.

After confirming the coordinates, Lord Lian quickly found the Donghuang Heavy Industry personnel guarding the perimeter, a reinforced company of the Heavy Armor Brigade.

Since the Four Nations War, Donghuang Heavy Industry had acquired a large number of resources, and although the Heavy Armor Brigade hadn’t expanded in numbers, its quality had significantly improved, showing an emerging intent to target the Armed Corps.

“It’s that floating land ahead, we’ve negotiated twice, and both times we were refused. If it doesn’t work…”

The commander’s expression turned cold.

Lord Lian glanced at him, “You speak quite fluently, have you done this often?”

Locked by the predatory aura of a Tier Four, the commander couldn’t stop trembling, lowering his head, “I wouldn’t dare; it’s just that guy won’t listen to reason…”

“Good that you haven’t done it.”

Lord Lian ignored him, slightly bent her knees, and in the next instant, she had leaped a thousand meters into the air, the airwave blowing the commander stumbling backward.

This floating land was about six hundred meters in diameter, considered large among the many floating lands.

It was structured like a layered cake with four tiers, with the open space on the top tier interspersed with coarse fescue and edible mutant plants. Perhaps hearing her leap, the people on the island were alert, heads popping up, weapons in hand, cautiously looking below.

Each had dark skin, covered with scars from cuts, burns, or recurring ulcers, their bodies showing varying degrees of mutation.

Five years into the apocalypse, even in safe zones, there were hardly any normal people left.

To survive, one must either evolve or mutate, there was no other choice.

A few held worn guns, wearing work jackets, albeit dirty and stained, they were considered well-off from their posture, indicating they were the armed forces of this faction.

Just standing high up and taking a rough glance, Lord Lian roughly understood the quality of this faction.

About two thousand people, with two to three hundred armed forces, a dozen at the Tier One level, an orderly and stable food production, considered good among non-mainstream factions, but still far from the scale of a small faction.

According to the fixed standards in the wild over these years, only those over ten thousand people, producing various resources beyond food and water, possessing multiple Tier Two individuals or one Tier One could be considered a small faction.

Otherwise, a natural disaster or an Evolution Beast attack would disperse them, making it a waste to even record them.

In the Gravity Zone, judging whether a force is up to par depends on whether they live on the ground; if they live on floating lands, they are not considered mainstream.

Floating lands have limited space, unable to support people, drifting around, unable to settle permanently.

Even if they miraculously settle and rise to a small faction, climbing further is difficult. Small factions, large factions, top factions, each difference is akin to climbing a ladder of civilization, hard to cross; comparably, evolution is the easiest thing to do.

As it continues like this, the weak will not become weaker, but the strong will definitely become stronger.

Lord Lian lightly landed on the edge, her stunning beauty immediately causing a sensation among the crowd, but even the gutsiest rogue dared only peek from behind a building cautiously, looking a bit more would make their heart race as if calamity was about to strike, fleeing in terror.

“I’m Lord Lian, someone who can speak, step forth.”

Lord Lian’s sharp voice echoed across the floating land.

Someone recognized her identity, face going pale, murmuring lowly, “The Lord, the Lord actually came herself!”

People who heard him dropped what they were holding in fright, not daring even to watch the excitement, tightly shutting their doors and windows, going back to await their fate.

In the entire Gravity Zone, the strongest force was Donghuang Heavy Industry, and the most famous warriors in Donghuang Heavy Industry were two people, one was the War Giant Lian Jin, the other was the Martial Marquis Lord Lian.

Although most dangerous areas in the Gravity Zone were swept by Lian Jin and his troops, the fiercest battles were fought by Lord Lian alone.

A pair of iron fists had carved out a notorious reputation in the wild.

Without her permission, other top forces dared not establish branches in the Gravity Zone.

The crowd dispersed like birds and beasts, the densely populated floating island falling silent in an instant.

After a minute, just as Lord Lian’s patience neared its limit, a timid woman’s voice said, “Lo…Lord, the leader invites you for a detailed discussion inside.”

The woman’s thick eyebrows raised; she didn’t expect someone to dare act grandly in such a remote corner, a cold smile inwardly, she said calmly, “Lead the way.”

While walking, considering in her mind how to scold.

After many twists and turns, they finally arrived at the core of the floating land. The so-called leader’s house was a steel frame hut, akin to tin houses on pre-apocalyptic construction sites, even less so, like a scavenger’s collected building material pieced together.

The leading woman pointed at the house and quickly slipped away.

However, Lord Lian didn’t plan to enter; standing at the door, she said coldly, “I thought your door frame was gold-plated. Should I get an eight-man sedan to invite you out?”

The rolling sound waves surged forward, carrying a substantial malevolence, slamming into the house, the tin creaking loudly, the entire house shaking as if thrown into a storm, swaying precariously.

But just after the initial fierce shakes, it suddenly steadied, unmoved under Lord Lian’s aura.

Is there another expert?

Just as the woman was about to take action, a teasing voice rang out, “Tsk tsk, what a majestic aura from the Lord, almost blew someone’s house away.”

Lord Lian’s pupils contracted sharply, stepping forward, she pushed open the door to find that familiar figure sitting on the tattered sofa against the wall, now looking at her with a smile.

It was none other than Su Huan, passing through this place.

Sitting on the other side was a horned woman, naturally Ah Duo, who accompanied Su Huan.

The short, stout man sitting beside them was the leader of the floating land, Jiao Ting.

Seeing Su Huan, Lord Lian exhibited no trace of joy, her willow eyebrows raised, “You come to the Gravity Zone, don’t see me first, what are you doing here?”

Facing the woman’s questioning, Su Huan inwardly sighed, because it wasn’t long since they parted, coupled with the fact he already had a [Gravity] Rule Stone, he planned to directly bypass the Gravity Zone; he wouldn’t have come down if not for discovering Jiao Ting was still alive, unexpectedly running into Lord Lian.

But the phrase “We just saw each other recently” was certainly not something he could say, so he lifted his wine glass, “Planned to have a drink, then come looking for you.”

Lord Lian relaxed a little, voluntarily overlooking the reality factor that the Donghuang Heavy Industries Headquarters was closer than here, looking at the short stout man with slight skepticism, “Friend?”

She was slightly surprised that Su Huan still had a friend here.

Su Huan nodded, smiling as he introduced, “Jiao Ting of the Iron Wolf Corps, four years ago he treated me to a drink.”

Jiao Ting was taken aback; he didn’t expect Su Huan to remember that drink for four years, shaking his head, sighing, “You’re mistaken, back then you brought back that head and treated me to a meal, so I owe you…”

“You also attended the Four Nations War.”

Seeing Su Huan’s serious gaze, Jiao Ting stopped arguing, instead grinned, “Then let’s drink heartily today, but just to be clear, no one is allowed to add anything to it!”

The two men exchanged smiles.

Lord Lian squinted while scrutinizing Su Huan in front of her; compared to three years ago, Su Huan now looked more like a man.

He seemed burdened with many things, giving a feeling of heaviness, more composed.

But the woman quickly noticed another gaze focused on Su Huan, belonging to the horned woman from the Mechanical God Cult; in her eyes, there seemed to be something that resonated with her own views, which made Lord Lian somewhat displeased.

‘I should never have let her pass back then!’

After exchanging pleasantries, Lord Lian turned to Jiao Ting, discussing the main issue, “Why did you refuse our negotiations?”

Jiao Ting sighed, “The time you gave was too short, and the conditions too harsh.”

Lord Lian frowned, just about to speak when Su Huan softly reminded, “The issue might lie in the execution as well.”